622 | Studies in English Language and Education, 7(2), 622-641, 2020

(Re)Evaluating Language Attitudes on Indonesian Tourism Website: A Study on

Ecolinguistics P-ISSN 2355-2794 E-ISSN 2461-0275

Arina Isti’anah*

Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Sanata Dharma, Yogyakarta 55281, INDONESIA

Abstract Tourism is one of the government’s ways of promoting the country’s identity and improving its economic growth. For tourists, it is to find not only reliable information but also promotion and the existence of the website is effective to persuade the potential tourists. The presence of nature’s beauty is an overwhelming source of curiosity for visitors. The popularity of Indonesian tourism has motivated scholars to research tourism discourse strategies, yet the study on how nature was represented on the tourism website is still scarce. By applying Critical Discourse Analysis, this paper attempts at (re)evaluating language attitudes of the ecolexicon on the Indonesian tourism website. The research problems are formulated to answer (1) what domains of the environment are presented on the website, (2) how the ecolexicon found is evaluated, and (3) how the environment should be described on the website. The data were taken from 16 destination texts accessed from www.indonesia.travel. This research found that the physical environment comprising various domains dominated the website in the form of appreciation. The domination of valuation on the website revealed that Indonesian nature was promoted in terms of its value. It persuaded potential tourists to adore the beauty of the Indonesian physical environment. The website was re-evaluated to promote not only the physical environment but also social and economic environments in the form of judgment. The absence of judgment needs to be considered by the government considering that tourism should be a good chance to teach people how to respect nature despite people’s excitement when visiting the tourism destinations.

Keywords: Tourism, language attitude, evaluation, ecolinguistics.

* Corresponding author, email: [email protected]

Citation in APA style: Isti’anah, A. (2020). (Re)evaluating language attitudes on Indonesian tourism website: A study on ecolinguistics. Studies in English Language and Education, 7(2), 622-641.

Received May 9, 2020; Revised July 17, 2020; Accepted August 6, 2020 https://doi.org/10.24815/siele.v7i2.16683 ©Syiah Kuala University. All rights reserved.

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1. INTRODUCTION

Advanced technology, including transportation that provides easy access to visiting areas around the world, triggers massive tourism promotion around the world, including Indonesia. Indonesia, as an archipelago country, is aware of its potentials in tourism, seen from its information provided on the website. Tourism is not just about marketing, however. Tourism is believed to be a way of creating a strong national identity for global consumption so that foreign investment and growth can be accomplished (Salim et al., 2012). The tourism language is affected by such factors as context, history, culture, and society (Malenkina & Ivanov, 2018). It is undeniable that Indonesia has abundant tourism sites that offer its beauty of nature. The tourism website promotes nature as the most interesting point that motivates the tourists’ visit to Indonesia. However, nature should be treated not only as an object for consumption. People should be aware that their existence will influence the role of nature itself. Indonesia also offers its uniqueness to draw the attention of the world with its vast number of languages, tribes, and cultural heritage. Coastal sites are the tourism magnet examples promoted on the website, for example, the Raja Ampat. Its beauty is promoted on the destination highlight on the front page of the website. The language of tourism discourse on the site provides a detailed description of the potential tourism destination for persuading, attracting, encouraging, and seducing potential tourists to be real tourists (Salim et al., 2012). Although the website’s purpose is to inform tourism destinations, the language chosen on the website will influence the choices made by people about where to visit. The influential terms and language of media can shape tourists’ perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors (Li et al., 2018). The analysis of tourism website is crucial to conduct because tourism is one of the expanding sectors to support a nation’s and the world’s economy (Nilsen & Ellingsen, 2015). The relationship between ecolinguistics and tourism lies in the key terms covered by eco-linguistics: economic growth, technological progress, nature as an artifact to be used or conquered, gain and achievement, which have profound implications for how we handle life-dependent systems (Stibbe, 2015, p. 2). Thus, nature as a tourism object is under the discussion of ecolinguistics. From a linguistic point of view, language has the power to shape, influence, and frame people’s minds on how to treat nature. The previous notion is proposed by ecolinguistics. It is a criticism of language forms that lead to environmental destruction, a search for new language forms that encourage people to protect the natural world (Stibbe, 2015). Ecolinguistics, then, raises the awareness of linguists to start paying attention to language choices made concerning nature representation. It is the language that links its users with each other and with nature, both society and human (Eliasson, 2015). In the context of tourism promotion, language choice affects people’s minds on how to treat nature. Language evaluation offers a critical approach to reveal the attitude of language users, which in this research refers to the official website of Indonesian tourism owned by the ministry of tourism. Halliday and Matthiessen (2004) assert that an appraisal pattern is a linguistic pattern where something is consistently described as positive or negative in texts. The role of evaluation in ecolinguistics is the power of trends to affect whether people think positively or negatively about an area of life (Stibbe, 2015). Evaluations are stories about whether a field of life is good or bad in the minds of people. Assessment of the language is supported by evaluation analysis that offers tools for negotiating discourse thoughts, beliefs, and specific voices (Moyano, 2018).

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The website is one of the media that uses the internet as its way of information distribution (Maglie, 2017; Nasti, et al., 2017). It invites browsers to explore the site through various links so that it widens the interaction between text and tourists. As a consequence, the worldwide web triggers initiation and incitement of social action (Hallet & Kaplan-Weinger, 2010). Moreover, the presence of the official website of tourism becomes a valuable mediation for both stakeholders and customers for information broadcasting, communication, and online purchasing (Salim & Hassan, 2018). The website is expected to provide updated content and information arranged in a well-design layout so that it becomes an interactive online communication method between travelers and stakeholders (Salim & Hassan, 2018). As human beings have the special ability to communicate in the form of language, language choice they make greatly influence their environment. Sapir (1974) as cited in Fill and Muhlhauser (2001) asserts that the vocabulary of a language is what mostly reflects the speaker’s physical and social environment. Thus, the language choice on the website reflects how the government influences its readers to treat nature in the tourism sector. The question of whether nature is only benefited for economic purpose triggers the present research. Therefore, it is important to (re)evaluate the language used on the Indonesian tourism website. The official tourism website is necessary to include in the analysis since it constructs and promotes identity and serves as calls for action (Hallet & Kaplan- Weinger, 2010). This research focuses on how Indonesian tourism’s official website uses Indonesian nature as a means of income benefit. The website is operated by the Ministry of Tourism. There is a destination highlight on the front page of the website which provides some areas along with their information. The readers can spot the highlights directly on the front page of the website. The destination highlights are most visited by the readers. This paper intends to (re)evaluate the language attitude of lexicon referring to nature on the destination highlights. To do so, ecolinguistics is applied as the starting point to observe how the environment is offered as a tourism commodity. From the researcher’s initial analysis, the websites mostly offered the physical environment. This fact triggers the researcher to conduct further research. Therefore, the analysis of the representation of the environment on the highlights is worth studying. Some scholars have researched language of tourism and ecolinguistics: the cultural aspects of Malaysian tourism brochures (Hassan, 2014), the marketing method offered in Chinese and British tourism website (Wu, 2018), multimodal meanings of issues offered in dark tourism websites across countries (Krisjanous, 2016), and the use of linguistic strategies in Spanish websites (Malenkina & Ivanov, 2018). The aforementioned researches have done thorough analysis in tourism discourse, yet none of them talked about the discourse of the environment in tourism. Therefore, this paper attempts at filling the gap by discussing the environment in the Indonesian tourism website by applying ecolinguistics as its point of view. The presentation of the environment is shown by the choice of the lexicon that refers to the environment, the so-called ecolexicon in ecolinguistics. To be particular, this paper intends to answer the following questions: 1. What domains of ecolexicon are employed on the official website of Indonesian tourism? 2. How is the choice of ecolexicon on the website evaluated?

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2. LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Systemic Functional Linguistics

Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) is grounded from the idea of how language is used to “construe reality and enact social relationship” (Halliday & Webster, 2009, p. 1). SFL maps the relation between context, semantics, lexicogrammar, and phonology by encompassing three variables in its contextual information through field, tenor, and mode (Trevisan & García, 2019). The role of context in SFL is dependent since contextual factors lead to some meanings and linguistic resources (Monbec, 2020). The reality is shown by the acts of meaning, which are potential, through semantic analysis. As the study of meanings, the semantic meanings in SFL is categorized into the three main functional components: ideational, interpersonal, and textual (Halliday & Webster, 2009, p. 5). The ideational function deals with the “construing experience”, which is shown in the structural configuration process, participants, and circumstances (Halliday & Webster, 2009, p. 6). This function “allows language users to present their world experience through the lexico-grammatical choices they make, which are part of the transitivity system” (Ezzina, 2015, p. 286). The ideational function is observed through the verbs, categorized into different processes, employed in the clause which requires their participants and circumstances. The interpersonal function is about the ‘enacting social relationship’ function (Halliday & Webster, 2009). This function “is concerned with the clause as exchange and the relationship between speakers in a given discourse” (Ezzina, 2015, p. 286). It enables us to draw how a language user builds a relationship with the readers or hearers. The employment of modality, for example, can be utilized to reveal whether the speaker is sure about his utterance or not. Modality is related to the probability or ability of the language user in delivering particular ideas. Furthermore, Martin and White (2005) propose an appraisal analysis to evaluate a speaker’s opinion towards something realized in the forms of affect, judgment, and appreciation. The textual function deals with how a speaker/writer selects a prominent message from the utterance. It is about how a message is signposted. One of the linguistic tools to analyze the textual function is theme-rheme analysis. The theme is the initial constituent of a message formed into topical, interpersonal, and textual themes (Halliday & Webster, 2009). Topical Theme is presented through ideational function components: participant, process, or circumstance. Interpersonal Theme is to show the rhetorical role of a speaker/writer, shown by the employment of modal adjuncts. On the other hand, Textual Theme is about how a message is linked, argued, and related to context, represented by the use of conjunctions (Chang & Lee, 2019).

2.2. Language Attitude

Xinghua and Thompson (2009) claim that attitude is the major subsystem in the appraisal framework and is the superordinate term for evaluative language in attitudinal positioning in text. This theory offers a tool to analyze the writers or speakers’ opinions towards certain issues. The appraisal system is a systematic framework of a linguistic approach that describes attitudes in the discourse semantics (Unsworth & Mills, 2020). Martin and White (2005) propose three domains of

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appraisal: attitude, engagement, and graduation. Attitude deals with feelings and has three subsystems: affect, judgment, and appreciation. Affect is emotional reactions, judgment is about behavior assessment according to various normative principles, and appreciation is about the value of things both natural phenomena and semiosis (Martin & White, 2005). Martin and White (2005) claim that of the three domains of appraisal, attitude is the central domain since it moves beyond emotion to deal more comprehensively with feelings: affect, judgment, and appreciation. Martin and White (2005) assert that the realization of affect can be seen from participants and processes: affective mental and behavioral processes and modal adjunct (Wei et al., 2015). There are three forms of affect: affect as quality, process, and comment. As a quality, affect is observed in terms of describing participants (epithet), attributed to participants (attribute), and manner of the process (circumstance). As a process, affect refers to either the mental or behavioral process. As a comment, affect refers to desiderative seen from the modal adjunct. There are six factors of affect: positive or negative, behavioral or mental, reaction or undirected mood, modality (low, medium, or high), realis or irrealis, and un/happiness, in/security, or dis/satisfaction (Martin & White, 2005). The judgment deals with attitudes to people and the way they behave their character (Martin & White, 2005). There are two categories of how judgment is made: social esteem and social sanction. Martin and White (2005, p. 52) describe that “social esteem tends to be policed in the oral culture,” and on the other hand, “social sanction is often codified in writing”. The realizations of social esteem are normality, capacity, and tenacity. Normality is about how unusual someone is (how special), capacity is how capable they are (how capable), and tenacity is about how resolute they are (how dependable). The realizations of social sanction are veracity and propriety. Veracity deals with how truthful someone is (how honest), while propriety deals with how ethical someone is (how far beyond reproach). Figure 1 shows how judgment is realized by utilizing modality.

Figure 1. Modality and types of judgement (Martin & White, 2005, p. 54).

Martin and White (2005) propose that appreciation deals with the evaluation of ‘things’ we make and performances we give but include natural phenomena. Appreciation can be realized in three sub-types: reaction, composition, and valuation. A. Isti’anah, (Re)evaluating language attitudes on Indonesian tourism website: A study on ecolinguistics | 627

Reaction refers to whether the ‘thing’ grabs us and quality, which refers to whether we like it. Composition covers balance, whether the ‘thing’ hangs together, and complexity, whether the ‘thing’ is hard to follow. Valuation deals with whether the ‘thing’ is worthwhile. Appreciation is summarized in Table 1.

Table 1. Sub-types of appreciation (Martin & White, 2005, p. 57). Appreciation Mental Process Type Metafunction Reaction Affection interpersonal Composition Perception textual Valuation Cognition ideational

2.3 Ecolinguistics

Scholars have paid attention to language and ecology as one of the ways to consider the global warming phenomenon. Though language and ecology seem to be separated areas of research, language plays an important role in ecology (Stibbe, 2015). The roles of language in ecology are to observe how economic systems are built, how those systems are led to immense suffering and ecological destruction, and how the economy is brought into being. Tourism is one of the important sectors that give a huge impact on how nature is preserved or destroyed. Therefore, the choice of tourism language requires serious consideration because it is through language that the natural world is mentally reduced to artifacts or resources to be conquered, and it is through language that people can be encouraged to value and care for the structures which support life (Stibbe, 2015). The existence of nature and the environment is inseparable in the ecolinguistic study. Sapir (1974) proposes three forms of the environment: physical, economic, and social. The physical environment deals with geographical characters such as the topography of the country (whether coast, valley, plain, plateau, or mountain), climate, and amount of rainfall. The economic environment is about the basis of human life comprising the fauna, flora, and mineral sources of region, while the social environment comprises various forces of society that mold the life and thought of each individual. The social environment also covers religion, ethical standards, political forms of organization, and art (Fill & Muhlhauser, 2001). Those three domains of environment proposed by Sapir (1974) are related from one to another. The physical environment has been utilized to gain economic profit in which the human life basis is fulfilled. Furthermore, the way human beings fulfill their economic needs reflects their social environment on how they are influenced by religions and political views to treat nature, for example. Some cultural rituals to appreciate nature is found in Indonesia, such as Pakatn Talutn done by the Dayak society in Eno Mountain for forest preservation (Kustini, 2012). Indonesian people’s awareness of nature and the environment is a good example of how economic needs should be in line with nature’s needs. In this case, they are conservation and preservation. In fact, the participants discuss meanings in actual speech events and words. Language reflects the environment not only from a human point of view but from the usefulness of nature to humans and their business activities (Fill & Muhlhauser, 2001). It signifies that human beings should consider the existence of the environment in terms of its role to provide humans with their needs as well as its conservation and preservation. This strengthens that human beings and the environment are two

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inseparable parts of life. The life of human beings depends much on what the environment provides. To evaluate the language, SFL proposes an appraisal analysis to figure out a linguistic pattern where something is consistently described as positive or negative in texts (Stibbe, 2015). The position of appraisal in ecolinguistics is the patterns’ power to influence whether people think of an area of life positively or negatively (Stibbe, 2015). The language presented on the website uncovers how the Indonesian government shapes the readers’ thought of the image of Indonesian tourism. Though the language used on the website is presented positively, how the environment is presented, and what domain appears the most or the least also matters. This research concerns language and ecology presented on the official website of Indonesian tourism. Language and ecology are defined as “the study of interactions between any given language and its environment, in which environment means the society that uses a language as one of its codes rather than the referential word” (Fill & Muhlhauser, 2001, p. 3). Language and environment are intertwined and co- constructed entities, meaning that language is not only a means through which the world is viewed but also affects the world itself, through which it becomes evident (Dӧring & Zunino, 2013). Eventually, this research suggests how the language in the official website of the Indonesian government displays how the domain of environment is presented on the website and concludes the government’s attitude on the importance of the environment in the tourism sector.

2.4 Review of Previous Studies

Hassan (2014) observed language on tourism found in Malaysian tourism brochures. Motivated by the fact that Malaysia has different races and ethnicities, Hassan applied multimodal discourse analysis to figure out how linguistic elements and visual images portray Malaysian cultures in the tourism brochures. The brochures taken as the data were those featuring Penang, Malacca, and Sarawak. The study revealed that the cultural elements portrayed in the brochures include people from different ethnicities, cultural festivals, traditional lifestyles, traditional music, and traditional games (Hassan, 2014). The research concludes that those cultural elements are important commodities to Malaysian uniqueness (Hassan, 2014). Another related study on appraisal analysis in tourism discourse was conducted by Wu (2018). The research evaluated the language of tourism in Hangzhou and London. Taking the data from http://www.gotohz.com/ and https://www.visitlondon.com/, Wu (2018) tried to criticize the marketing method through the employment of appreciation, valuation, and graduation. Though the frequency of appraisal patterns was similar, London tourism was promoted in terms of its current attractions, while Hangzhou tourism is promoted by its history. The paper concluded that the different language choice in the marketing strategy was influenced by the differences in the history of commercial advertising, the city’s reputation, and culture (Wu, 2018). The authenticity of a site or heritage offered through dark tourism attracted Krisjanous (2016) to research how dark tourism websites communicate to their readers. Using a multimodal approach, the research evaluated 25 dark tourism websites from several countries that offer museums, battlefields, and performances. The research found that dark tourism websites present an attractive and worthwhile A. Isti’anah, (Re)evaluating language attitudes on Indonesian tourism website: A study on ecolinguistics | 629 experience. They also presented the dark sites as contested landscapes or places. The research also concluded that websites are rich in multimodal semiotic meanings. Krisjanous (2016) also suggested that the websites provide pre-information to the customers to provide them an effective means to shape and sensitize the travelers to the nature of the site. The other study reviewed in this paper is the analysis of Spanish tourism websites by Autonomous Communities for destination management, marketing, and branding (Malenkina & Ivanov, 2018). Taking corpus data, the research attempted at analyzing tourism discourse to evaluate how the websites apply linguistic strategies to persuade readers, find out similarities and differences between the Spanish and English versions of the websites, and concluding whether official tourism websites in Spain present particular pattern of tourism terminology. The paper found some metadiscoursal strategies on the websites: hedges, boosters, attitude markers, self- mentions, and engagement markers. The terminology used on the websites consisted of thematic vocabulary specific to tourism discourse. The websites shared similarities in the way they use similar linguistic behavior to promote tourism efficiently and effectively in destination branding (Malenkina & Ivanov, 2018).

3. METHODS

This descriptive qualitative research applied Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as its approach. However, ecolinguistics was taken into account as the departing point of view on how language is used in the data. This research analyzed how the Indonesian government through its website used the domain of nature to gain profit so that it helps the country’s economic growth, thus this paper regarded language as a social construct (Young & Harrison, 2004). In this paper, CDA is utilized to study the contemporary social and economic activity through which nature is transformed into an exotic and inviting commodity (Santos et al., 2008). The data were taken from the official website of the Indonesian government accessed at https://www.indonesia.travel. The website was managed by the Ministry of Indonesian Tourism. It, therefore, represented the image of Indonesia that the Indonesian government offered to the potential tourists. This research took sample data on the website. The texts purposively chosen on the website were those presented in the destination highlights, covering 16 tourism destinations: Medan, Raja Ampat, Bali, Banyuwangi, Bintan Island, Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Bandung, Makassar, Lombok, Wakatobi, Batam Island, Bunaken, Solo, Semarang, and Lake Toba. The destination highlight appeared on the front page of the website, revealing that those tourism sites were promoted the most. The website readers were encouraged to click those destinations first. The analysis started by finding out the domains of the environment in the texts by lexical analysis and categorized the similar semantic properties of the ecolexicon. The ecolexicon was observed further in the way it was described in the clause. The theory of Martin and White (2005) on appraisal analysis was applied here so that the description of ecolexicon could be categorized into the types of attitude. The ecolexicon mentioned on the website referred to the appraised item, while the words describing the ecolexicon was described as appraising items. After finding out the

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language attitude of how the environment is presented on the website, this paper re- evaluated the language on the website from an ecolinguistic point of view.

4. RESULTS

Indonesian nature in the observed texts was divided into these physical domains: coast, flora and fauna, inland, underwater, highland, weather, nature activity, and mountain. Table 2 shows the frequency of ecolexicon together with its domain.

Table 2. The domains of the physical environment on the website. The Domain of Physical Environment Frequency Percentage Coast 34 19% Flora and fauna 32 18% Inland 27 15% Underwater 25 14% Highland 24 13% Weather 21 12% Nature activity 16 9% Mountain 7 4% Total 186 100%

The ecolexicon in Table 2 is found in either the phrasal or sentential level. Table 2 depicts that there were 186 ecolexicon that referred to the physical environment. The domination of the coast, as well as flora and fauna, strengthened the fact that the Ministry of Indonesian Tourism considered the Indonesian coast as an important tourism site to promote. The presence of sea life was also promoted to the readers. That ecolexicon was found the most in the east part of Indonesia: Raja Ampat, Lombok, Makassar, and Bali. From the appraisal analysis of the ecolexicon of the physical environment above, appreciation was the only language attitude found in the destination highlights on the official website of Indonesian tourism. Broken down into its more detailed categories, the clauses regarding Indonesian tourism were presented in positive attitudes in the form of valuation, reaction, and composition. Table 3 shows a summary of the language attitude on the website.

Table 3. The summary of language attitudes on the website. Types of Appreciation Frequency Percentage +valuation 70 38% +composition 60 32% +reaction 56 32% Total 186 100%

Table 3 displays that the percentage of each appreciation type was more or less similar to one another. The positive valuation was presented in 70 clauses or 38% of all data. The positive composition was found in 60 clauses or 32% of all data, while the positive reaction was displayed in 56 clauses or 32% of all data. The next sub-parts discuss how appreciation is exercised on the website.

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4.1 Valuation

The valuation was used to evaluate language in the way how an object was worthwhile. The ecolexicon presented in valuation is as shown in (1).

(1) “Retreat to the soothing ambiance of the highlands to visit Lake Toba and the Samosir Island”.

The datum in (1) presented valuation. Table 4 shows the appraisal analysis of a tourism destination description.

Table 4. The appraisal analysis of (1). Appraising items Appreciation Appraised Physical Domain Soothing ambiance +valuation Lake Toba and Samosir Island Highland

The object being evaluated above was ‘highlands’ referring to areas of Lake Toba and Samosir. The valuation expressed above was in the form of a Noun Phrase (NP) ‘soothing ambiance’. The pristine nature and weather were offered on the website to grasp the readers’ attention by imagining how fresh and clear the areas of Lake Toba and Samosir Island were. The areas were positively worthwhile to visit. The readers were persuaded to enjoy nature apart from their busy life in the cities. Another area presented positively in the form of valuation was highland in Yogyakarta text in clause (2).

(2) “Adventure wonders are also aplenty in Yogyakarta. Starting with exploring Mount Merapi National Park, riding the thrilling jeep ride and hiking Mount Nglanggeran, an ancient volcano located in a beautiful village”.

Table 5 is the appraisal analysis.

Table 5. The appraisal analysis of (2). Appraising Items Appreciation Appraised Physical Domain Ancient +valuation Nglanggeran volcano Highland

Unlike the previous example whose domain described was fauna, the Yogyakarta tourism site was positively described in terms of its volcano, Nglanggeran. that was offered from its ancient being. The phenomenon was positively appraised as a destination worthwhile to visit. Another area described positively in the form of valuation was found in Raja Ampat text. The clause presented on the website is as shown in (3).

(3) “The incredible wildlife of Raja Ampat does not stop underwater”.

Table 6 is the appraisal analysis of the above clause.

Table 6. The appraisal analysis of (3). Appraising Items Appreciation Appraised Physical Domain Incredible +valuation Wildlife of Raja Ampat Fauna

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Instead of presenting highland and weather in positive valuation form, the website also presented fauna positively. The above analysis depicted that the wildlife of Raja Ampat was offered on the website in the form of an adjective, ‘incredible’. The tourists were invited to see the wildlife in Raja Ampat that they could not find in any other place. The distinctive species found only in Raja Ampat were presented positively. The type of fauna presented on the website was not those found underwater but also in the jungles. Similar to Raja Ampat, Lombok was also described positively for its underwater life. The clause presented on the website was as follows.

(4) “With divine beaches, the majestic Mt Rinjani and spectacular marine life to discover, the island of Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara has no shortage of attractions both in and out of the water”.

Table 7 is the appraisal analysis of the previous clause.

Table 7. The appraisal analysis of (4). Appraising items Appreciation Appraised Physical Domain Spectacular +valuation Marine life Fauna No shortage of attraction +valuation In and out of the water Fauna

The presence of fauna both in and out of the water was appraised positively. What the tourists would spend in Lombok was an unforgettable experience since what they would enjoy in Lombok was beyond their expectations. The various marine life they found in Lombok under clear water was not the only website offered but also fauna they found out of the water. Therefore, Lombok was described as an area rich in fauna the tourists would never forget. Instead of highland and fauna, the positive valuation was also used to describe nature activity. The clause is as shown in (5).

(5) “Rock climbing can be done in Siung beach, while cave tubing is a major attraction in Goa Pindul, and you can try to visit Jomblang cave for an extraordinary caving experience”.

Table 8 is the appraisal analysis.

Table 8. The appraisal analysis of (5). Appraising Items Appreciation Appraised Physical Domain Extraordinary +valuation Jomblang caving experience Nature Activity

The activity mentioned above was presented as a worthwhile nature activity the tourists could experience in Jomblang cave. The appraising item used above was also in the form of an adjective, ‘extraordinary’. The location of the cave was offered as a different location from other caving experience. The tourists were invited to enjoy not only the ordinary caving experience but more than that. Similar to Yogyakarta, Makassar was also positively appreciated in terms of its natural activity in clause (6).

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(6) “In this park, you can also splurge for adventurous activities, such as trekking, hiking and exploring the karst areas in its western area”.

Table 9 is the appraisal analysis.

Table 9. The appraisal analysis of (6). Appraising Items Appreciation Appraised Physical Domain Adventurous tour +valuation Bantimurung Bulusaraung Nature Activity

National Park

The presence of karts area in Batimunurung Bulusaraung National Park was benefited by the website to attract the tourists. The appraising item used on the website was in the form of an NP, ‘adventurous tour’. This NP was categorized as a positive valuation since the national park offered karst areas that could only be found there when the tourists visited Makassar. Thus, those activities were worthy of the experience. Though the clauses presented in positive valuation were in the form of material processes ideationally, the appraising items employed refer to cognition. It happened since the tourists were evoked to imagine how worthy the areas were. For example, the use of adjectives ‘extraordinary’, ‘incredible’, ‘ancient’, and ‘spectacular’ created a positive image of how worthwhile Indonesian tourism destinations were. Similarly, the employment of NP ‘soothing ambiance’ and the ‘adventurous tour’ also let the readers involve their cognition to recognize the places as attractive areas for them to visit. Indonesia was presented as a worthwhile country to promote in terms of its fauna, highland, coasts, and weather. The various marine life and fauna in jungles were promoted on the website as distinctive tourism attractions as if the tourists could not find in any other Asian countries. The tropical weather was also inscribed in the text to emphasize Indonesia’s being a tropical country. The involvement of flora such as orchids, tea, and paddies proved the characteristic of a tropical country’s flora.

4.2 Reaction

Different from valuation, which referred to whether an area was worthwhile or not, reaction dealt with whether an area grabbed the readers or not. The reaction was related to affection and desideration. An example of a positive reaction used on the website was found in Raja Ampat text in the following clause.

(7) “Not to mention the friendly assistant of the dugong, and a busy colleague, the turtle”.

Table 10 is the appraisal analysis.

Table 10. The appraisal analysis of (7). Appraising Items Appreciation Appraised Physical Domain

Friendly assistant +reaction dugong Fauna

The appraised item in the above clause was the dugong, a type of fauna in Raja Ampat underwater, which was appraised by an NP, ‘a friendly assistant’. The appraising item employed on the website attracted the tourists to have a willingness to

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enjoy the underwater fauna with the dugong. It grabbed the tourists when they visited Raja Ampat. It aroused the visitors’ reaction towards the physical domain in Raja Ampat.

Another clause presented in a reaction was found in Bali text in the clause.

(8) “Bali’s white beaches are certainly a favorite destination for family holidays”.

Table 11 is the appraisal analysis.

Table 11. The appraisal analysis of (8). Appraising Items Appreciation Appraised Physical Domain Certainly a favorite + reaction Bali’s white beaches Coast destination

The website grabbed the tourists in the form of appraising items ‘certainly a favorite destination’. Among other beaches in Indonesia, Bali’s white beaches were presented as the ones the tourists could choose to become their favorites. This related the tourism destination to the tourists’ desideration to visit the place. The area was also described positively by employing the adjective ‘favorite’ and modal ‘certainly’. The appraised item involved a modifier ‘white’ to distinguish Bali’s beaches from other areas, for example, beaches in the Yogyakarta area in Bantul regency. Similar to Bali, Bintan Island was portrayed positively on the website from its coasts. Clause (9) is found in the Bintan Island text.

(9) “Bintan is the largest island in the Riau Islands province and one that offers the perfect getaway with its high-end resorts, world-class golf courses, and refreshing coastal atmosphere”.

Table 12 is the appraisal analysis.

Table 12. The appraisal analysis of (9). Appraising Items Appreciation Appraised Physical Domain The perfect gateway + reaction Bintan Island’s resorts Coast

While Bali was described in terms of its white sands, Bintan Island was promoted from its seaside resorts. The use of an NP, ‘the perfect gateway’, arouse the readers’ willingness to choose Bintan Island. In the middle of people’s business nowadays, a short gateway was often chosen as a refreshing way to boost people’s energy. The location of Bintan Island near Singapore was offered on the website in the form of desideration. Instead of Bali and Bintan Island, Banyuwangi was appreciated positively in terms of its mountain in the following clause.

(10) “Banyuwangi Regency extends over an area of 5,800 square km, comprising southern beaches brushed by the Indian Ocean, to impressive Mt Raung that stands at 3,282 meters and Mt Merapi at 2,800 meters above sea level”.

Table 13 is the appraisal analysis of the above clause.

A. Isti’anah, (Re)evaluating language attitudes on Indonesian tourism website: A study on ecolinguistics | 635

Table 13. The appraisal analysis of (10). Appraising Items Appreciation Appraised Physical Domain Impressive + reaction Mt Raung Mountain

The adjective ‘impressive’ was chosen on the website to seize the readers so that they chose Banyuwangi as a destination. The description of the height of the mountain was intentionally displayed on the website, thus the readers’ desideration was expected to achieve. The appraising item above referred to the positive reaction that the tourists could appreciate when visiting Mt Raung in Banyuwangi. Bandung was appreciated positively on the website from its weather. The following clause was proof.

(11) “Meanwhile, the adjacent cool town of Lembang and other scenic areas now also offer a wide variety of attractions and entertainment for the whole family, heaven for Instagrammers”.

Table 14 is the appraisal analysis.

Table 14. The appraisal analysis of (11). Appraising Items Appreciation Appraised Physical Domain Heaven for Instagrammers + reaction Lembang Weather

In this digital era, the presence of social media unavoidably attracted people to visit a tourism destination. It was used on the website as a strategy to grab the attention of readers. The appraising item displayed above, thus, was categorized into a positive reaction. For those active in social media, particularly Instagram, Lembang would be a suitable destination to visit. Accompanied by the various attraction and scenic areas, Lembang was presented as a heaven for the Instagrammers. The website attempted at relating the readers’ lifestyle to those found in Indonesia. What triggered the tourists’ reactions varied from flora and fauna, coast, weather, and mountain. The presence of underwater life was also mentioned to arise the readers’ curiosity and excitement when visiting the place.

4.3 Composition

The other form of appreciation was composition, referring to the complexity of a thing. On the official website of Indonesian tourism, the composition was realized in the form of what an area consisted of. An example of a clause appreciated in terms of its composition was found in Bunaken text in the following clause.

(12) “There are 13 species of coral reefs in this park, dominated by edge ridges and block ridges of rocks”.

Table 15 is the appraisal analysis.

Table 15. The appraisal analysis of (12). Appraising Items Appreciation Appraised Physical Domain 13 species of coral reefs +composition Bunaken National Park Fauna

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Bunaken had a National Park having 13 species of coral reefs. The appreciation found in the clause was in positive value realized in the form of an NP, ‘13 species of coral reefs’. The complexity of species in the Marine Park was offered on the website. Instead of coral reefs, the following appraisal analysis displayed other appraised items in Bunaken.

Table 16. The appraisal analysis of other appraised items in Bunaken. Appraising Items Appreciation Appraised Physical Domain 91 types of fish +composition Bunaken National Park Underwater With about 20 dive spots +composition Scuba diving Nature Activity

In Bunaken National Park, underwater life was appreciated positively in terms of its enormous types of sea life. The activity inscribed on the website was scuba diving, appreciated positively. The number of dive spots was displayed on the website as the appraising items. The similarity of the destination description above was found in the form of NPs as the appraising items for Bunaken National Park and scuba diving activities. Similar to Bunaken, Wakatobi also owned a national marine park. Table 17 is the appraisal analysis for Wakatobi’s national park.

Table 17. The appraisal analysis for Wakatobi’s national park. Appraising Items Appreciation Appraised Physical Domain Different, colorful +composition Species of coral fish Flora Fauna The largest barrier reef +composition National Marine Park Underwater in Indonesia Wakatobi More than 50 +composition Dive sites Underwater spectacular… Easily accessible +composition Dive sites Underwater 942 fish and 750 +composition Coral reefs Flora and Fauna

The rich sea life of Wakatobi marine park was displayed positively on the website. The complexity of its flora and fauna in its underwater, the website attracted the readers to visit the place as one of the best diving spots in Indonesia instead of Bunaken and Raja Ampat. Instead of the number, the access to get to the dive sites was described on the website positively. The employment of an adjective phrase, ‘easily accessible’, is the appraising item for dive sites. It referred to the easy access the tourists could have when visiting Wakatobi. Different from the east part of Indonesia, Bandung was described in the form of its tea and coffee plantation as well as its cliff. Table 18 is the appraisal analysis in Bandung text.

Table 18. The appraisal analysis in Bandung text. Appraising Items Appreciation Appraised Physical Domain Wealthy +composition Tea and coffee plantation Flora Fauna Dramatic hills +composition Tebing Keraton Highland

Bandung is located in highland; thus, the weather there is suitable for tea and coffee plantation. The presence of an adjective ‘wealthy’ was exercised on the website to appraise ‘tea’ and ‘coffee plantation’. The composition found there referred to the number of the plantation the tourists could find there. Bandung text offered not only A. Isti’anah, (Re)evaluating language attitudes on Indonesian tourism website: A study on ecolinguistics | 637 tea and coffee products but also the view. The other physical domain appraised in Bandung text was ‘Tebing Keraton’, appraised by an NP ‘dramatic hills’. The complexity of the site was presented on the website positively. The aforementioned appraising item was not to threaten the tourists but to challenge those having an adventurous soul. What differed from the composition on the website was the appraised item. The east part of Indonesia was appreciated in terms of its flora and fauna in the areas of underwater sea life. The nature activity inscribed in the text was related to underwater, that is scuba diving. Meanwhile, in the west part of Indonesia, such as Bandung, what is appreciated is its flora and weather. It emphasizes the characteristic of Indonesian tourism that the employment of nature was benefited by the website to boost the tourism sector.

5. DISCUSSION

From the ecolinguistic point of view, this research has some criticisms to propose. First, the domination of the physical environment on the website signified that the website portrayed the nature or environment as the object of tourism. The few numbers of nature activities on the website strengthened that the presence of tourists and local people as active agents was not foregrounded on the website. The environment was positioned as an object to gain benefit and profit. The beauty of nature in Indonesia was portrayed beautifully rich in the underwater fauna that the tourists could enjoy. The use of positive appreciation reflected that nature was the resource for the tourism sector. However, the choice of ecolexicon had to be reconsidered since it only presented the physical environment. The language choice of the ecolexicon became important in tourism promotion as it could affect the natural world as it was mentally reduced to resources to be conquered (Stibbe, 2015). The language on the website should not only be taken from human beings’ point of view, but also from nature’s usefulness to humans and their commercial activities (Fill & Muhlhauser, 2001). Second, the employment of appreciation as the only attitude on the website signaled that the website was a type of promotion site portraying areas always in a positive image. Though the website mentioned that it was managed by the Ministry of Tourism, it was similar to other tourism websites managed by travel agents. The position of appraisal in ecolinguistics was the patterns’ power to influence whether people think of an area of life positively or negatively (Stibbe, 2015). The official website of Indonesian tourism always portrayed all destination highlights positively, aiming to promote tourism aspects and ignore other attitudes. However, the employment of appreciation was also significant as a resource of the social significance of the text. This strategy was needed to give the readers the first impression of Indonesian nature (Wu, 2018). Unlike the tourism websites of Hangzhou and London that was promoted a lot through valuation, the Indonesian website used appreciation to build its national identity as a country rich in its nature. In language appraisal, two other aspects that were absent on the website: affect and judgment. Affect is about feeling, while judgment deals with attitudes to people and the way they behave their character (Martin and White, 2005). The absence of judgment resulted in the absence of evaluating people in tourism destinations. The joy

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and excitement the tourists could have in Indonesia might lead to environmental destruction. This was the job of language to relate wordings and ecology. Language and environment are interconnected and co-constructed entities, meaning that language does not only represent a medium through which the world is perceived, but the world also affects the medium itself through which it becomes apparent (Dӧring & Zunino, 2013). Therefore, the website could improve its wordings by describing the tourists’ activities that could help nature perseverance. It could also involve the local people as important factors in the tourism industry. Third, from the ecolinguistic point of view, the website much appreciated the physical environment. The presence of social and economic environments was found less than a physical domain. The social environment referring to cultural rituals in Indonesia could be described more. For example, Pakatn Talutn was done by the Dayak society in Eno Mountain for forest preservation (Kustini, 2012). As the country has hundreds of tribes, and some of them live with nature, the Indonesian tourism website could portray the tribes’ activities when they thanked the mother earth for the food it provides. The activities done by Dayak people to thank nature were good examples of how they respect nature. Indonesian people’s awareness of nature and the environment was a good example of how economic needs should be in line with natural needs. The vocabulary became important on the website since it reflected the physical and social environment of its speakers (Fill & Muhlhauser, 2001). When the Indonesian tourism website involved a description of the local people’s activities toward mother nature, the image of the country would be attached to nature’s perseverance. It reflected how Indonesian people respected the earth. Fourth, compared to the previous study concerning Malaysian tourism, this research gave more attention to the employment of the physical environment on the website. Motivated by Malaysian discourse (Hassan, 2014) that the brochures portrayed people, festivals, traditional lifestyles, music, and games, the Indonesian tourism website could emphasize not only the physical environment but also the economic and social environment. The cultural heritage such as the palace, temple, batik, traditional musical instruments, dances, games, and also songs could be positioned in a balanced percentage as the physical environment. The website could also adopt the concept of “dark tourism” as what Krisjanous (2016) conducted. The website could attract tourists to experience the country’s authenticity. The presence of temples and colonial remains in Indonesia could be more described on the website. From in ecolinguistic point of view, this was included into the social environment. This paper also agreed with (Malenkina & Ivanov, 2018) in the way how the linguistic strategies on the website became the crucial factor to persuade tourists.

6. CONCLUSION

From the 16 destination highlights on the official website of Indonesian tourism, Indonesian tourism was promoted in terms of their physical environment, referring to the topography of the areas. The ecolexicon used referring to the physical environment involve proper names and noun phrases denoting some physical domains. Eight physical domains are concluded from the website: inland, highland, mountain, coast, underwater, flora and fauna, weather, and nature activity. Coast dominates the website, signaling that Indonesia is attached to its beautiful coastal view. The least number of A. Isti’anah, (Re)evaluating language attitudes on Indonesian tourism website: A study on ecolinguistics | 639 nature activity on the website reveals that the tourists are positioned as sensors, not agents who conduct activities related to ecotourism. Evaluated from language appraisal, the ecolexicon is positively appreciated, proven by the absence of affect and judgment on the website. Nature is positioned as a resource to get more tourists, rather than evaluating how tourists should behave when visiting Indonesian tourism destinations. The absence of judgment needs to be considered by the government considering that tourism should be a good chance to teach people how to respect nature despite people’s excitement when visiting the tourism destinations. Criticized from ecolinguistic point view, this research suggests some important points: the presence of local people along with their cultural activities has to be described more on the website, the presence of tourists as active agents in the form of judgment, the concept of ecotourism has to be promoted on the website, and the presence of visual images on the website that needs to be varied about the three types of environment as proposed by Sapir. This paper limits its discussion on the environment from the ecolexicon used on the website. Thus, further researches to improve the present discussion can be done by scholars to apply multimodal discourse analysis in the way how visual elements represent the discourse of the environment on the website. The mental perspective of Indonesian tourism could be developed from how the language was packaged on the website along with the pictures portraying the environment. The other suggestion for future research was that the findings of the present study can be developed in terms of its visual structures applying Kress and Leeuwen’s multimodal discourse analysis.

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